an entry which has no connecting thread running through it

[hermionesviolin]

more Princess Bride icons if anyone’s interested

Lileks begins to redeem himself
(Eugene Volokh has more on the Bill O’Reilly Internet thing, and InstaPundit has numerous posts about it, particularly this one)

my mother: i'm back in grief mode, just to warn you
my dad: any particular reason?
my mother: well, my dad died ;-)

offbalance called me a “visiting LJ dignitary” *grinsblushes*

Am disappointed that tranceballerina won’t be visiting, but it does mean that i don’t have to clean my room. ;)

Desperate for conversation, he blurts out the first thing that comes into his head that doesn't include the words 'naked' or 'sex.' "Interesting style of dance they have around here."

Lindsey snorts, looks at his watch and gestures to the couples groping each other more or less in time to the music. "At this point there's no dancing. It's just rubbing until they both realize they wanna fuck."

-from "Rainmakers" by Lar

"Like all good postmodern tales, this one begins out of sequence." Word. The fact that i liked neither the protagonist nor any of the other characters in Naipaul’s The Mimic Men was the main reason i was so pleased that my professor cut it out of our list (I had plodded through 72/300 pages when i got the e-mail.), but the lack of linearity was really bothering me as well. I like knowing what the fruitcake is going on, what can i say? I like my modern(ist?) literature, thank you very much.

I don’t really like any of the characters in Zadie Smith’s The White Teeth, either, but i am actually enjoying reading it.

”Where I come from,“ said Archie, “a bloke likes to get to know a girl before he marries her.”

“Where you come from it is customary to boil vegetables until they fall apart. This does not mean,” said Samad tersely, “that it is a good idea.”

Literary Makings of the Modern Self. Got an e-mail today.

Valentine Cunningham, your tutor for Literary Makings of the Modern Self, has requested that you purchase the following books for his course. He was quite specific about the editions he requires; these books are available on Amazon and may be available at book stores in the States. Otherwise, you can purchase them at Blackwells when you get to Oxford.

Hamlet, by William Shakespeare. Norton Critical edition (You will be reading this in the first four sessions)
Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe. Norton Critical edition
The Mill on the Floss, by George Eliot. Oxford World's Classics edition.
Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Becket (any edition)
Money: A Suicide Note, by Martin Amis (any edition)

The only books on my 2 class lists that i didn’t get from the public library system were the books my family owns. I assume. I will raid the Oxford library or borrow from my classmates or whatever, but i am not purchasing special editions of classical works just because my professor wants us to read some critical essays on them. Have they any idea how much money i’m spending on this program as is? And 4 bloody sessions on Hamlet? You have got to be kidding me. Am i the only person who is goddamn sick and tired of Hamlet?

Oh, while we’re on the subject, i give The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) overall a thumbs up, but i had some real issues with it. The Hamlet thing went on too long, and i had hoped the Prelude would be all they did of Romeo and Juliet (why yes i do hate that play), since really it tells the whole story, though it was amusing. This all made me doubly angry that “The Scottish Play” (my favorite Shakespearean play) only got about 2 minutes. Lots of great lines throughout. “Where better to begin the complete works of the greatest playwright in the English language... than in Italy.” “Four Weddings and a Transvestite.”

In other randomness, my paid account runs out the 28th of this month. I would much prefer things like cash and film/disposable cameras as birthday gifts, but i just thought i’d put this out there ;)

Comments

[suspectplaces.livejournal.com]

according to helen gardner as ventriloquised through the body of sharon seelig, hamlet draws most strongly from norse revenge sagas.